American universities are reportedly using endowment funds to buy and lease vast tracts of African farmland, often for piddling prices, in deals that will reward foreign investors handsomely while separating tens of thousands from their homes and farms and providing little or none of the economic benefits promised them, California researchers say.

Almost everyone in the United States or indeed anywhere else in the world knows about Zimbabwe’s sit-tight president, Robert Mugabe. But who is Mogae? Who is Chissano? Who is Kikwete? And who is Kufuor? Sadly, very few people outside Africa recognize these names.